French Cleat Peg Rack

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I’ve always had a problem finding places to store long, thin items (yardstick, drill press fence, crosscut sled inserts, etc.). I used to store them on top of other things (my crosscut sled, the top of my French cleats, or any other long, flat surface), where they’d invariably get in the way when I needed to use those things.

I built this peg rack to help solve that problem. It’s nice and compact (just over 15” wide) but has three tiers of peg holes, giving me almost four feet of linear storage. The peg holes are spaced 1” apart to make it easier to accommodate items of various widths and are tilted up five degrees to keep items from slipping off. So far, I’m using only two of the three tiers, so I have plenty of room for growth.

As usual, I placed the SketchUp model in 3D Warehouse.

The project was very simple, so I’ll just outline a few construction steps.

The hardest step was drilling the angled peg holes. I didn’t feel like tilting the table on my drill press (and having to re-level it afterward), so I started by clamping a piece of scrap to serve as a fence.



I created a temporary tilted surface by putting a narrow piece of scrap under a wider piece.



Then I just drilled the holes.



I didn’t want any visible fasteners on the completed rack, so I used 1” screws through the backs of the middle and rear peg blocks to keep the parts aligned while I glued and clamped the parts.





Thanks for looking! 

13 Comments

Thanks, Steve!

Keep working hard, and one day you’ll be able to move beyond simple beginner projects like kayaks to more advanced ones like this rack… :-) :-)
We all wish for a nice rack (to hang our tools on) ((hats!!!)

Useful! 

I just use the table saw, floor, anything handy to help loose or damage the peg hangers. (I'm so ashamed!)
Nice utility build

Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".

Another "I really should do this" project.  Someday... 
Storage is always a great project, and that looks sturdy for the task at hand.

Main Street to the Mountains

RS, no BS! I used to swear at my (inaccurate) imperial ruler, then I went metric... and still swear...

However, french cleats are grossely under rated and it's incredible in their diversification.

Thanks for the post and reminder that I did French in high school.  (WTF ???... yeah, me too!). I'm sure many milleniums, with degraded education, may find this unique, but refuse to admit... handy info.

SketchUp Warehouse 👍👍👍.

Cheap and woodwortking in the same sentenc is an oxymoron!

Nice concept and build, looks great & stores a lot in a minimal amount of wall space.
Thanks for your comments, everyone.

SplinterGroup, I feel your shame. I still have too much stuff sitting on the floor, like jigs I’ll never use again but am reluctant to toss for some reason.

Alex, I don’t actually measure with that yardstick. I use it mainly as a straight edge for cutting veneer and such.

Barb, I understand… it took me half a year to get around to making this little rack. I have a list of shop projects I never seem to start.
Hi Ron - I have a partial wall of unused cleat space crying out for something like this.  I like the multi-layer and staggered holes to pack as much in as possible.  It's on my list now.
That's clever Ron, good idea.

I need to make some french cleat storage - but I need to free up some wall space first :)
Hi Ross. Some food for thought… if I were to build another one, I might make the peg blocks thicker (front to back), maybe 1” or 1 1/4” instead of 3/4”, to give the back two tiers a bit more capacity. I’d also cut some longer pegs for the front tier (I’ll do this the next time I roll out my saw) for the same reason.

Mike, you won’t regret adding some cleats if you can free up some space. They make it so convenient to add little custom holders.
good thinking, Ron. Wall space in the shop is always at a premium!!

Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day